Mark Ruffalo says the Hulk will not appear in Avengers: Doomsday, trimming one of Marvel’s longest-running crossover pieces from the roster. The absence lands after his March omission from the cast announcement and shifts attention to where Bruce Banner shows up next.
Empire and Jimmy Fallon
Ruffalo told Empire that the Hulk will not appear in Avengers: Doomsday, and he said he would happily return as long as they keep finding cool things to do with Hulk. That is the useful part for Marvel: the door stays open, but the timing moves somewhere else.
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he joked that they decided it was better to get rid of him than for him to tell the end of the next movie. He has been tied to Bruce Banner and the Hulk since 2012, and his post-Endgame appearances have come in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, What If…?, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
The next live-action appearance is set to come in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, ending a four year absence for the character. Set photos from the upcoming Spider-Man film reportedly showed Bruce Banner on a stretcher, which points to a return built around a narrower storyline than the kind of team-up Marvel uses in Avengers films.
Universal holds the distribution rights to solo Hulk films, which has limited Marvel Studios’ room to build the character in standalone releases. That makes appearances inside other films the practical route, especially when Marvel is threading Hulk through projects without a dedicated solo title.
Avengers: Doomsday cast
March brought the sprawling Avengers: Doomsday casting announcement, and Ruffalo was absent even though he looks like an obvious fit for the film’s roster. The current lineup instead includes Chris Hemsworth, Simu Liu, Robert Downey Jr., Letitia Wright, Anthony Mackie, Ian McKellen, Vanessa Kirby, and Florence Pugh, while Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow also appear to be absent.
That leaves Avengers: Doomsday without one of Marvel’s signature support players and puts the pressure on Spider-Man: Brand New Day to carry the next Hulk beat. The cleaner read is simple: Marvel is spacing out its gamma-powered asset, not retiring it.
Secret Wars in the United Kingdom
The Russo Brothers are expected to begin shooting Avengers: Secret Wars in the United Kingdom later this year, which keeps the broader MCU pipeline moving even with Hulk missing from Avengers: Doomsday. For now, Ruffalo’s next turn is the one worth tracking, because it is the only live-action return on the board.
